Casualties

Contents

"In the fullness of time, the cycle shall draw to its end. The xel'naga who forged the stars will transcend their creation. Yet the Fallen One will remain, destined to cover the Void in shadow. Before the stars wake from their
Celestial courses he shall break the cycle of the gods, devouring all light and hope. It begins with the Great Hungerer. It ends in utter darkness."

The conflict's origins lie millennia before the conflict itself. The xel'naga regularly seeded the universe with life as part of their Infinite Cycle. Over many generations, two species, one with the "purity of form" and another with the "purity of essence", would merge naturally. Their xel'naga progenitors would then transfer their essence to them, giving rise to a new generation of xel'naga, which would repeat the cycle. [2][3]

The xel'naga Amon, however, viewed this cycle as corrupt and flawed. He desired to remake the universe in his own image. [4] To this end, he and his followers violated the xel'naga's rule of non-intervention, and uplifted the protoss and the zerg, with the intention of merging the two species to create the hybrid. [3] Contrary to the xel'naga's intent, the hybrids were the result of a perversion of their Infinite Cycle.[2][5] As part of the process of uplifting the latter, Amon created the Overmind, to ensure that the zerg would not fall into the same strife that consumed the protoss.[5] However, the Overmind was created without free will and was directed to forcibly assimilate the protoss in order to create the Hybrid. Trapped within its own mind, the zerg ruler was forced to comply.[6] When the other xel'naga discovered Amon's experiments and tried to put a stop to them, Amon unleashed the Overmind and the Swarm against the xel'naga worldships over Zerus.[5] The Swarm wiped out the majority of the xel'naga, then embarked into space to "complete" Amon's work by destroying the protoss.[7] Ultimately, Amon intended to dispose of the zerg once they and the Hybrid cleansed the universe of life.

Note: A degree of overlap may be present, but there are essentially two timelines in regards to the events leading up to Armageddon. The article here is presented in such a spirit, with the original timeline presented first, and the altered timeline second, in which prophetic actions are factored in.

"On a distant, shadowed world, the protoss will make their final stand. Their heroes will gather, their forces will be marshaled, and they will die bravely. But still, they will die. And my zerg...will be slaves...to the hybrid. All will bow before the power...of the Fallen One."

In a bid to free the zerg from Amon, the Overmind ordered the infestation of Sarah Kerrigan, a terranghost.[6] However, Kerrigan was killed by her enemies after being mistaken for the true threat. Without her, Amon's plans were free to go forward. He subverted the zerg and, together with the hybrids, went on to conquer the galaxy. All life in the Koprulu Sector (including the terrans)[4] was eradicated over the course of the conflict, a fate mirrored by most, if not all of the galaxy.[8]

The zerg spread throughout the galaxy

In the conflict's final stages, the protoss found themselves isolated and alone against Amon, with the remnants of their civilization besieged on a distant, shadowed world. They hoped to hold out long enough to prepare an archive to aid future civilizations against Amon. The fallen xel'naga taunted the protoss by revealing Kerrigan's importance. Eventually the hybrids and zerg broke the defenses and wiped out the protoss. The zerg, having outlived their usefulness, followed the protoss into extinction at the hands of the hybrids. Amon then proceeded to reshape all life in his image.[4]

Shortly before the Second Great War, Zeratul, having become aware of the looming apocalypse in basic form, received a vision from what appeared to be Tassadar's spirit while probing the Overmind's corpse. What the Overmind and the Tassadar apparition saw, the Dark Templar saw as well.[6] He was left to wonder whether the 'Fallen One' might be a xel'naga. However, he was certain that Kerrigan had to live if the apocalypse was to be avoided.[4] To this end, Zeratul imparted the knowledge he had received to Jim Raynor, urging him that Kerrigan, for all her crimes, was their only hope for the future. He gave the terran an ihan crystal, through which Raynor was to glimpse at what others had before him.[10]

Kerrigan was later de-infested by a xel'naga artifact due to the combined efforts of Raynor's Raiders and half of the Dominion fleet.[11] That Kerrigan was not killed at Char was a point of divergence from the apocalyptic future glimpsed at by the Overmind.[12]

In the aftermath of the war, Kerrigan led the Zerg Swarm to find Amon,[13] who had been revived through the use of the energy stored in the artifact that had been used to de-infest Kerrigan.[14][15]

Ultimately, Armageddon was averted during the End War, which saw the final defeat of Amon at the hands of an ascended xel'naga Sarah Kerrigan. [16]

The term "Armageddon" is coined from a line by Jim Raynor, but as of yet, the conflict does not have a concrete name, nor is it clear whether its divergent timeline will make it one and the same as the Second Great War. The term "great war" was used to describe it by an interviewer, a term that writer Brian Kindregan did not refute.[17]